Chumming For Catfish and Catfish Chum

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Chumming for Catfish

Catfish Chum - Chumming with Milo, Wheat, Soured Grain,

Range Cubes and Cottonseed Cakes

Anybody that knows any serious catfish guys has heard about chumming. You always hear stories about it, little rumors about Uncle Fred's cousins boyfriend and his mystery catfish hole. Chumming is not a big mystery if you ask most serious catfish guys, now on the other hand, the spots they chum IS likely a mystery, because they do not want you blabbing all over town about their little honey hole.

Serious catfish guys chum holes. It is a simple effective way to attract and keep fish in a given area so you can do some serious fishing. It works very well and is fairly easy and inexpensive if you go about it the right way.

There are numerous commercial chums available that you can use. Buying a commercial chum is expensive. I have never used any of these commercial chums because of their cost and the fact that I like to know what exactly I am throwing in the water. Many commercial chums (like the "Dock Block") contain sorghum, which if kept in the water is likely to gather you a great big mess of Carp.

The even bigger drawback of the commercial chums is the expense. I can make about 12-14 gallons of chum for what one small bag of commercial chum would make (and the commercial chum would last one trip). Again, I am not knocking the commercial stuff. For many people this may be a good option. A serious angler that is on a budget however is not likely to choose this route.

There are a number of different options to choose from. You may encounter many different variations of these chums but for these purposes I will try and keep these as simple as possible. These are all effective in the forms in which they are listed.

These items should be available at any feed store.

PLEASE REMEMBER WHEN YOU ARE READING THIS TO PROTECT OUR RESOURCES. DON'T LITTER THE WATER, IF YOU DROP A BAG OR BUCKET IN THE WATER, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A ROPE OR SOME MEANS TO GET IT BACK OUT.

MILO

Milo comes in 50 lb bags. A 50 lb bag of Milo will make approximately 2 ½ - Five gallon buckets of chum. It is available at feed stores and will run around $5 for a 50 lb bag. In order to make the milo chum you will need the following ingredients:

50 lb Bag of Milo
2 or 3 - Five Gallon Buckets with Lids
Water

To make the chum you need to fill your 5-gallon buckets about half full with Milo. Once you have added the Milo to the bucket you need to fill the bucket with water to about 2 inches over the grain. To speed fermenting of the Milo you can add a can of beer or some brewers yeast and ½ cup of table sugar. This will help speed things up in colder weather but is not necessary at all, it just depends on how big of a hurry you are in. During the summer you do not need to add these items because the heat will push the process right along. You can also add small quantities of deer corn and cottonseed meal if you wish but it is not necessary. Another option is to use "Chicken Scratch" which contains many of the above ingredients.

Once the Milo and Water are in the bucket you need to place the buckets somewhere out of the way and place the lids on top BUT DO NOT SNAP THEM ON. Within a day or two you will notice the water in the Milo beginning to bubble. This is the fermenting process. Keep an eye on the buckets and you will need to add water to them every day or two until the grain finishes absorbing water. Keep the water level about an inch over the top of the grain.

After a week or so the bucket will stop bubbling and you can snap the lid on tight.

Now, let me forewarn you guys. This stuff gets to stinkin'. It stinks bad, I mean real bad. So bad that it will turn your stomach the first whiff you get on a summer morning. If you have a wife, girlfriend or kids around the house, you need to forewarn them. You don't want them messin' around with those buckets cause they are liable to get a big surprise. Keeping the lids snapped on the buckets helps, but when it hits 98 degrees in August, you just have to live with the smell. I would not recommend keeping this stuff in your garage after about a week or so.

I try to let my Milo rot for about a month before I even consider using it. You can use it sooner than that but I would recommend letting it sit at least 2 weeks at a minimum. It has to smell really bad and stink for it to be effective. If you try and use it too soon it will not sink and it won't work. You need it to go to the bottom.

When it has gotten really good and rotten, you will know. The smell gets much worse the longer it sits and it will smell REALLY bad. It will also develop some clumps of white and black mold looking gunk on the top of the water and have a lot of foam on the top. This is the good stuff. Prime 100% grade A STINK!.

Try to keep several buckets of Milo going at once so you do not have to wait on it. One thing that works really well is when you get to the bottom of a bucket, leave a few inches of soured grain in the bottom and add your new grain and water to the old stuff. This will help the fermenting process along.

Many people rot their Milo in 55 Gallon drums but I prefer the 5 Gallon buckets because they seal tight and keep the smell somewhat contained and when I am ready to fish I grab some buckets and go. With a 55 Gallon drum you have to scoop the rotten grain out into a smaller container for transport.

When transporting your Milo to the lake, MAKE SURE IT IS SEALED. If the buckets turn over and spill all over your vehicle or boat, this is not likely a mistake you will make twice.

To chum your fishing holes with Milo you just need to find the right areas. Look for spots that are likely to be hideouts for cats and chum these areas. If the cats are not there, the chum will attract them to that area. If you maintain a schedule for chumming on a regular basis the cats will cruise your spot for food. They are not ones to forget a free meal.

All that is required to chum the area is throw out several scoops of grain and water. A coffee can works well for this. People argue about how much to use in each area but several large coffee can scoops of grain will get things going. The grain sends the cats in frenzy a lot of times, and often, when you drop your line in the water your bait will not make it to the lake bottom. When you throw the Milo out don't do some little girly move and dump this stuff casually over the side of the boat! Get you some good momentum behind it and broadcast this stuff out in a half moon or in a line across about a 10 foot area. If you dump all the grain in one big pile the fish will not be moving around scavenging for food.

When you land your cats, they will often puke this stuff out all over your boat following their feeding frenzy. If not, when you clean your fish, cut open the stomach and you are almost guaranteed to find a stomach full of Milo. If you are chumming on a regular basis it is still a good idea to dump some Milo 15 or twenty minutes before you fish.

If you want to keep the smell and a small amount of grain in an area you can use a Tow Sack filled with grain sunk in the water, or a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in it to dispense the grain (you need to put a big rock or concrete in the bottom of the bucket to hold it down). The same methods with buckets or Tow sacks can be used with range cubes also.

As said before, there are variations to this basic Milo recipe. Some folks add corn, cottonseed meal or corn meal to their buckets. I have even heard of people adding garlic to their Milo. Just get the basic process down and then tweak your recipe to suit yourself.

RANGE CUBES

Range cubes can be used for the chumming also. Available at any feed store these are great big pellets and contain a number of ingredients including cottonseed meal. The cubes come in 50 Lb bags and run between $5 and $6 a bag.

WHEN BUYING RANGE CUBES MAKE SURE YOU ASK FOR 20% RANGE CUBES!

You can use the same method of throwing a few handfuls out in your fishing hole in a broadcast pattern (DON'T DUMP THEM ALL IN A BIG PILE IN ONE SPOT, really whiz em'out there over a good area).

In addition to dropping them in the water you can take a tow sack and fill it about half way up with range cubes. Tie the top of the sack off with a rope and drop the sack in the water in your fishing hole. You can also jab a knife in the bag if you wish to help release some of the range cubes into the water when they begin to break down.

Another method (as mentioned with Milo also, but it is not anywhere near as messy when using range cubes) is to take a 5 gallon bucket and put a big rock or some concrete in the bottom to sink it. Drill a good number of holes from 1/3 to ¾ inch In the sides of the bucket. Fill the bucket with range cubes and snap on the lid. Tie a rope to the bucket and drop it in the water. The range cubes will not only attract the kitties but it will also attract baitfish (and the baitfish can swim in the holes into the bucket to feed). This is like a great big flashing buffet light to the channel cat. Channel cats like free meals!

If you cannot stomach the smell of the Milo, you are probably headed down the wrong fishing path. Much of catfishing involves FOUL smells. One benefit of range cubes is that they DO NOT smell. Many people alternate the range cubes and Milo. Some use the range cubes to chum on a regular basis and then dump the soured Milo fifteen or twenty minutes before they fish to send the fish to feedin'.

OTHER CHUMS

There many other chum recipes out there. I know of people that use a mix or corn meal and cinnamon in a tow sack. There are others who freeze blended up shad in buckets with a rope tied through and drift them in the water behind their boats. The Milo and Range cubes are the most common and the ones I have the most knowledge of.

CHUMMING TIPS.

Make sure you broadcast the chum across an area, don't just drop it over the side in a big pile.
Pick spots that are likely catfish spots, look for areas that would be a good catfish habitat.
When chumming in current, you need to find areas that have still water with little or no current or breaks in the current to hold the chum in a given area. The only other options are to use the sack or bucket to hold the grain. You are better off chumming an area with less current.
Chumming needs to be done in shallow water. If you dump your chum in deep water it is going to spread out all over the water and you have wasted your chum. Stick to shallow water with little to know current.
Read the information on Texas Catfishin' Resource about how to find catfish. This is a good guide on locating areas to chum.
Don't be afraid to use chum. Chum three or four areas at a time when you fish. If you do not get a bite within 15 to 20 minutes, move on to your next spot. If you have chummed and area and do not get a bite within 15 to 20 minutes it is not likely you will get one.
Chumming works, it will often draw fish into an area that there are not fish. Remember that channel cats are scavengers and they LOVE free meals.
5 Gallon buckets and tow sacks are easily accessible. For buckets you can try restaurants and donut shops (they get their glazes in buckets) or at a last resort you can buy them from most feed stores and construction supply houses. Burlap sacks are easy to obtain also from feed stores, if you have to buy them most construction supply houses sell them.